If you’re a young person trying to figure out what to do after high school, I don’t envy you.

Not even the adults advising you can seem to agree about what path you should choose.

Pursue a four-year degree. Don’t pursue a four-year degree. Get an associate degree. Go into the skilled trades. Get some work experience before you pursue more education.

It’s like a confusing multiple-choice test. But let me see if I can help you sort it out.

First, this is still America, where you’re free to pursue any career you want. If you have your heart set on being a plumber, a welder, a nurse’s aide or a hair stylist, go for it. We need people to do such work.

It’s a big report, based on census data and a nationwide survey of 2,002 adults, including 630 people age 25 to 32 in the so-called millennial generation.

Bottom line: millennials with four-year degrees earn far more, are employed at higher rates and are less likely to live in poverty than those with less than a bachelor’s degree.

The economic disparity between those with a bachelor’s degree and those will less education—including some college—“has never been greater in the modern era,” the Pew report said.

The study found that the medium annual income of 25-to-32-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees was $45,000 in 2012. That’s up from $43,663 in 1995, adjusted for inflation.

Some education and business leaders are trying to steer you into jobs that requiring training or some college after high school, saying you may be better off than borrowing tens of thousands of dollars to get a four-year degree.

But the Pew study found that millennials with some college or a two-year degree earned $30,000 in median income in 2012, just $2,000 more than those with only a high school diploma.

Plus, inflation-adjusted wages for high school graduates and those with some college or a two-year degree have been declining for 30 years, according to the Pew study.

It’s not all good news for those with a four-year degree.

“Young college graduates are having more difficulty landing work than earlier cohorts,” the study said. “They are more likely to be unemployed and have to search longer for a job than earlier generations of young adults.”

But those without at least a bachelor’s degree are faring even worse in the job market.

The larger problem is our economy is not producing enough good-paying jobs for workers at all education levels. But you’re more likely to prosper in this troubled environment with a four-year degree.
Email Rick Haglund at haglund.rick@gmail.com